The foreign secretary criticised people making "excuses" for terrorists by attempting to shift liability onto the intelligence services.

"We are absolutely clear; the responsibility for acts of terror rests with those who commit them. But a huge burden of responsibility also lies with those who act as apologists for them," Hammond said.

The senior Tory also warned attendees at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) about the threat from Russia and Vladimir Putin.

"We are now faced with a Russian leader bent not on joining the international rules-based system which keeps the peace between nations, but on subverting it," he said.